Septa9739
Lead Service Attendant
This trip was a quick little getaway to Chicago. I had with me an old friend who expressed some interest in taking a long haul train trip. The trip was 174 PHL-NYP then 49 NYP-CHI. My trip began aboard a SEPTA bus. It was clean and punctual. From there, I connected to a SEPTA Regional Rail Train, which was also unusually pleasant. Maybe going to vacation instead of work puts a little rose-color tint in the old glasses. Upon arrival at Thirtieth Street (if I’m still allowed to call it that), all was typical. The gate agent actually behaved like a normal person and actually offered helpful information. I was very pleased.
174 arrived early and departed punctually. It is a rough ride. It makes every single stop Amtrak makes in New Jersey, 6 in about 60 miles. The old connecting was 86, about 40 minutes later, which was a bit tight. I actually had a problem with it in the past (see previous report), but found it a far better ride than 174, given I had another many hours ahead of me. My friend was too new to the experience to care.
Moynihan was characteristically good. We had lunch at Jacob’s Pickles, quite impressive. The main concourse continues to need nice long benches like every other major station in the country. The coach waiting room gets a little tight. Boarding for 49 was the usual mess. There’s an Empire Service that gets out just in time to board 49. Many people know where 49 boards contributing to total chaos when the call was finally made. Seat assignment is, of course, done by coach for the Lakeshore at New York, as far as Albany up front, Upstate and Ohio in the middle, Indiana and Chicago in the back. There were maybe 50 Chicago passengers in New York. The train was stuffed out of NYP, with seating still very much underway as the train pulled out punctually. The ride up the Hudson was the usual spectacle, with large chunks of ice creating a setting previously unknown to me.
Albany offered quite an adventure. We pulled in a hair early, alongside a train I had never seen before. It had a P42, Amfleet II coach, Amfleet I business, Amfleet I cafe. That cobbled together mess was the Boston section sans a sleeper, which explained the lack of a BidUp invitation for our trip. The section from Boston was pretty empty and remained so for most of the trip. This seems to be a pattern. The New York section is slammed and could use another coach or two. The Boston section seems less than fully patronized. One of the locomotives from the Boston section was being difficult and went to the shops for a little TLC. It came back with “Amtrash” written in the condensation on the window.
The night was quiet with the 20 or so minutes of delay we picked up at Albany being killed by the time we reached Buffalo. By morning the train was maybe 60% full. Arrival was about 30 early at around 9:45 with the Floridian right on our markers. Checked baggage appeared quickly and we were off on our way. My friend thoroughly enjoyed his first overnight train trip.
174 arrived early and departed punctually. It is a rough ride. It makes every single stop Amtrak makes in New Jersey, 6 in about 60 miles. The old connecting was 86, about 40 minutes later, which was a bit tight. I actually had a problem with it in the past (see previous report), but found it a far better ride than 174, given I had another many hours ahead of me. My friend was too new to the experience to care.
Moynihan was characteristically good. We had lunch at Jacob’s Pickles, quite impressive. The main concourse continues to need nice long benches like every other major station in the country. The coach waiting room gets a little tight. Boarding for 49 was the usual mess. There’s an Empire Service that gets out just in time to board 49. Many people know where 49 boards contributing to total chaos when the call was finally made. Seat assignment is, of course, done by coach for the Lakeshore at New York, as far as Albany up front, Upstate and Ohio in the middle, Indiana and Chicago in the back. There were maybe 50 Chicago passengers in New York. The train was stuffed out of NYP, with seating still very much underway as the train pulled out punctually. The ride up the Hudson was the usual spectacle, with large chunks of ice creating a setting previously unknown to me.
Albany offered quite an adventure. We pulled in a hair early, alongside a train I had never seen before. It had a P42, Amfleet II coach, Amfleet I business, Amfleet I cafe. That cobbled together mess was the Boston section sans a sleeper, which explained the lack of a BidUp invitation for our trip. The section from Boston was pretty empty and remained so for most of the trip. This seems to be a pattern. The New York section is slammed and could use another coach or two. The Boston section seems less than fully patronized. One of the locomotives from the Boston section was being difficult and went to the shops for a little TLC. It came back with “Amtrash” written in the condensation on the window.
The night was quiet with the 20 or so minutes of delay we picked up at Albany being killed by the time we reached Buffalo. By morning the train was maybe 60% full. Arrival was about 30 early at around 9:45 with the Floridian right on our markers. Checked baggage appeared quickly and we were off on our way. My friend thoroughly enjoyed his first overnight train trip.
